^J 


% 


^. 


A.. 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


a 


W 


■^ 


M^ 


m 


II  !.0 


I.I 


1.25 


*'-'  |I|M    |I|II2J 

-  ilia  iz2 


14 


12,0, 

1.6 


^"Ss 


p> 


<p 


r 


/y 


>^. 


v^ 


^a 


.■>' 


m>. 


/; 


"^^ 


/!^ 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


.■^. 


rtV 


^v 


^^ 


4 


%^ 


^ 


% 


'^j) 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  canadien  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  th?  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


I      I    Coloured  covers/ 

'    Couverture  de  couleur 


□    Covers  damaged/ 
Couverture  endommag6e 

n  "°^ 

I 1    Cou 


□ 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
verture  restaur^e  et/ou  pelliculde 


D    Cover  title  missing/ 
Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

□    Coloured  maps/ 
Cartes  gdographiques  en  couleur 


n 


Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
ere  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


:~j    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
J    Planch 


:hes  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reli^  avec  d'jutres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serree  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  int^rieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  fror^i  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certiMnes  pages  blanches  ajout^es 
lors  dune  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  film^es. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentairas  supplemantaires; 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'i!  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Stre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exige-  une 
modification  dans  la  m6thode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquds  ci-dessous. 


I      I    Coloured  pages/ 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommag^es 


□    Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restaur^es  et/ou  pellicul^es 

B'  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
Pages  ddcolor^es,  tachet^e^  ou  piquees 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d^tach^es 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Qualite  inegale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materic 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplemsntaire 


I      !    Pages  detached/ 
I      I    Showthrough/ 

n    Quality  of  print  varius/ 
Qi 

I      I    Includes  supplementary  material/ 


D 


Only  edition  available/ 
Seuie  Edition  disponible 

Pages  wholly  or  partialiy  obscured  by  ertata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  filmSes  d  nouveau  de  facon  i 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  redi'Ction  ratio  checked  below/ 

C<^  document  est  filmd  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu^  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

v' 

12X 

16X 

20X 

24X 

28X 

32X 

The  copy  fiSmtid  nerd  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Library  of  the  Public 
Archives  of  Canada 

The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filnriing  contract  specifications. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  rre  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  —^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  mar^y  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


L'exemplaire  U\m6  fut  reproduit  grdce  d  la 
g6n6rosit6  de: 

La  bibliothdque  des  Archives 
publiques  du  Canada 

Les  images  suivantes  ont  6l^  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettet6  de  l'exemplaire  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
fllmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimde  sont  film^s  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  ompreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illust/ation,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  sslon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commenpant  par  la 
prsmidrs  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — ♦-  signifie    A  SUIVRE",  la 
symbole  V  signifie  "F!N". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  §tre 
film6s  d  des  taux  de  reduction  diff^rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clich6,  il  est  film6  d  partir 
de  Tangle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite. 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mdthode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

Sebastian  Cabot 
—John  Cabc)t 


o 


Endeavored  by  Henry  Stevens  g  m  b  etc 

Corresponding  member  of  the  American  Oriental 

Society  and  of  the  New  England  Historic 

Genecdw^ical  Society  etc 


li 


Boston:  Office  of  the  Daily  Advertiser 

LONUOJf :  Office  of  the  Author  4  Trafalgar  Square 

March  1870 


^mmm 


MlgifljiltlSiiiiirwlif'.TO  II  ■  llMTlMit'y '  ^1'  1 


■■^•■f^ 


f^mmmKmmmmmam'mimBmmmm 


^S^^jmU't-n^smata 


'*IWlWlHlilll>iiiin,iiiinil>,mi^iiiiM»ji., 


Entered  nccorrlinj?  to  Aot  of  Congress  in  the  year  ll^'O  by 

IIknkv  S'JEVENS  in  the  Clerks  OtRee  of  the 

Dist/ict  Court  of  the  District  of 

Massachusetts 


"^ 


1 


i 


lllifiram»«lBiirWiri^iWiiaii 


tliiiiiiS  «llii»a.ii»  uteA  t 


To 


D  H  U  N  I  E 


I 


a 


W^tJ^ 


iijbmmiiim 


W: 


■■ 


I 


Truth  crushed  ti)  earth  shall  rise  again, 
Till"  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers, 

JBut  Error  wounded  writhes  with  pain 
And  dies  among  his  worshipers. 

Bryant. 


8 


1 1 


n 


■i  i- 


%\ 


•"m 


The  Cabots 


ii 


i- 


N  THESE  DATS  WHEN  ELECTROPLATE 

and  Show  invade  and  pervade  our  sanc- 
tums, banishinjjj  many  of  our  sterlins: 
national  and  family  treasures  bearing 
the  hall-mark  of  truth  and  reality  to  our  jiarrets 
or  to  the  vaults  of  our  bankers^  it  becomes  us 
from  time  to  time  to  lookout  and  overhaul  our 
household  gods,  to  inspect  iheir  condition,  that  we 
May  transmit  them  to  our  children  unimpaired. 
Keep  the  golden  candlesticks  of  your  households 
polished,and  permit  neither  your  Bible,  your  mor- 
ality, nor  your  historv  to  become  tarnished  by 


I 


'•saaswKBsew**®! 


:.  *p«w«!i«^  ., 


neglect  or  disuse,  was  the  pateraal  advice  of  the 
Old  Translators,  advice  which  comes  home  to  out 
business  and  bosoms  with  peculiar  force  to-day. 

The  Fifth  of  March  has  already,  for  the 
hundredth  time,  reminded  us  of  our  national 
origin  and  our  progress.  Soon  the  hundredth 
Fourth  of  July  will  be  here,  and  ere  long  the 
four-hundreth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  our 
Continent.  In  the  whirl  and  turmoil  of  the  pres- 
ent, are  we  sufficiently  mindful  of  the  past,  that, 
as  these  red-letter  days  come  round,  we  may,  at 
short  sight,  be  ready  to  exhibit  to  the  world,  giv- 
ing an  account  of  our  stewardship,  our  historical 
penates  and  heirlooms  untarnished  and  pure? 

Indulging  in  this  burnishing  mood,  suggested  by 
our  calendar  of  events,  and  resolvintT  well  for  the 
future,  but  hardly  knowing  where  to  begin,  we 
found  on  our  table  a  little  volume  bearing  this 
title:  The  Remarkable  Life,  Adventures  and 
Discoveries  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  of  Bristol,  the 
Founder  of  Great  Britain's  Maritime  Power; 
Dlscovertir  of  America,  and  its  first  Colonizer. 
By  J.  F.  Nicholls,  Citrf  Librarian,  Bristol.  20opp. 
Cap  ito,  London,  Sainpson  Low  &  Co.,  18G9. 


-'^' J!**4  S-^Sm 


ti 


We  confess  that  wc  cut  the  leaves  of  this 
beautiful  book,  from  the  Cliiswlck  Press  of 
\Vhittin«ham,  with  an  eagerness  that  has  seldom 
been  ours.  Wc  read  it  throufih,  and  throu;;h,  and 
thronsh,  and  closed  it  witli  a  profound  disappoint- 
ment which  had  never  before  been  ours.  We  inter- 
leaved it  dclic:itcly  with  our  historic  litmus-paper 
and  endeavored  to  test  its  facts  and  inferences  bv 
the  new  li{2;hts  and  the  new  readinjjrs  developed 
by  the  active  reseat ch  of  our  aftc.  We  had  lonj? 
hoped  some  dny  to  find  time  with  reverent  hanJs 
to  mouse  round  in  old  Bristol  and  discover  some 
lony;  hidden  documents  that  mi;:;ht  throw  li^ht 
on  the  honored  family  of  the  Cabots.  Mr  Nich- 
olls,  as  a  thorouL;h-2;oinij  antiquary,  well  versed 
in  the  eravc-stone,  cuddy-hole  and  garret  lore 
of  his  city,  has  dispelled  that  hope. 

We  know  nothing  of  Mr  Nicholls  personally, 
but  his  book  shows  him  to  be  an  earnest,  pains- 
taking bio2:rapher,  as  honest  in  his  convictions 
and  statements  as  an  overwhelmin^r  partiality  for 
a  pet  subiect  renders  it  possible  for  him  to  be  He 
has  studied  so  lovingly  and  so  persistently  that  he 
has  Cabotizcd  all  his  surroundin;;s.    Not  having 


--■""SSSw^^? 


8 


found  at  Bristol  any  thing  unknown  before,  prop 
crly  pcrtainini?  to  the  Cabots,  and  bcinp;  no  more 
successful  elsewhere  in  Enjiland,  he  has  been 
compelled  to  rehash  the  excellent  but  illdijrcsted 
work  of  our  countryman  Biddlc  with  the  works  of 
Tytler  and  Humboldt,  seasoning  the  dish  with  the 
recent  discoveries  of  Mr  Rawdon  Brown  in  Ven- 
ice and  Mr  Bergenroth  in  Spain,  flavoring  the 
whole  with  a  portrait  of  Sebastian  Caoot  ex- 
quisitely engraved  by  Rawle,  and  an  extract 
from  "Sebastian  Cabot's  map"  of  1544,  now  pre- 
scnx'd  in  the  Imperial  library  at  Paris. 

Mr  Nicholls  as  a  painstaking  chronicler,  has 
used,  it  must  be  admitted,  all  the  materials  that 
the  active  research  of  many  geographers  and 
antiquaries  has  turned  up  in  the  present  century. 
Nothing  old  or  new,  bearing  directly  on  the  Ca- 
bots,  seems  to  have  escaped  him,  not  even  the 
latest  disquisitions  of  Mr  Bancroft,  Dr  Kohl  or 
M.  d'Avezac.  The  result  is  the  above  remark- 
aole  title-page  to  a  more  reniarkable  book  of 
which  the  following  remarkable  passages  are  the 
substance  of  his  conclusions:-- 


^\f 


I  If 


"And  Sebastian  Cabot  win  henceforlh  have  a  Uomo  In 
erery  English  heart,  as  well  as  In  that  of  the  great  nation 
who  dwell  In  the  land  which  he  first  discovered,  and 
which  ought  at  this  day,  Instead  of  America,  to  be 
called  Cabotla."  [Pagex.j  "The  date  of  his  dcath,llke  that 
of  his  birth.  Is  unknown.... Even  where  his  ashes  lie  Is  a 
ixjysterv;  and  he  who  gave  to  England  a  contlnent.and  to 
Spain  an  empire,  lies  in  some  unknown  tomb."  Page  187 
"This  man,  who  surveyed  and  depicted  three  thousand 
miles  ot  a  coast  which  he  had  discovered ;  who  «ave  to 
Britain,  not  only  the  continent,  but  the  untold  riches  of 
the  deep,  in  the  fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  and  the  whale 
flshcy  of  the  Arct!c  sea ;  who  broke  up  a  monopoly  that, 
vamplre-like,  was  sucking  out  England's  infant  strength, 
and  unlocked  for  her  the  treasures  of  the  world,  paying. 
'Go,  vrln  and  then  wear  them ;'  who  is  never  reported  to 
have  struck  an  aggressive  blow ;  who  made  enemies  into 
friends,  and  whose  friends  were  ever  warmly  attached  to 
him :  who,  by  his  uprightness  and  fair  dealing,  raised 
England's  name  high  among  the  nations,  placed  her 
credit  on  a  solid  foundation,  an(?  r^ade  her  citizens  re- 
spected ;  who  was  the  father  of  free  trade,  and  gave  ua 
the  carrying  trade  of  the  world ;  this  man  has  not  a  statue 
in  the  city  fBristoij  that  gave  him  birth,  or  in  the  metrop 
olisof  the  country  he  so  greatly  enriched,  or  a  name  on 
the  land  he  discovered.  Emphatically,  the  most  scientific 
seaman  of  his  own  or,  perhaps,  many  subsequent  ages- 
one  of  the  greatest,  bravest,  b.  '  of  men— his  actions  have 
been  misrepresented,  hia  disc  veries  denied,  his  deeds 


h 


10 


ascribed  to  others,  and  calumny  has  flung  its  fllth  on  his 
meTuory."  [Pagel88.J  "We  have  striven  to  clear  away  the 
misrepresentations  with  which  ignorance,  pr-^judlce,  and 

malignity  have  overlaid  his  life  and  actions To  us  It  has 

been  Indeod  alabor  of  love ;  for,  iike  some  glorious  f\ntiuue 
in  an  acropolis  of  weeds,  he  g.ew  in  beauty  as  we  lifted  off, 
one  after  an  another,  the  aspersions  which  had  been  cast 
upon  him,  until,  as  the  last  stain  was  removed,  and  our 
loving  work  was  done,  ab  ^A  stood  before  us  In  the 
majesty  of  his  true  uanhood,  w<?  were  amazed  that  such 
a  man  stiould  have  remained  so  little  known,  and  our  only 
sorrow  in  connection  with  our  worli  was  ibis— that  the 
taek  of  exhurjlng  his  reeutation  bad  not  fallen  into  abler 
and  more  efficient  hands."    i  Page  189.  J 

Now, without  attempting  to  become  champions 
of  Historic  Truth,  being  familiar  with  all  the 
materials  specially  bearing  upon  the  Cabots 
used  in  compiling  this  book,  and  acquainted 
with  much  more  of  a  general  character  which 
ought  to  have  been  used  by  the  loving  compiler, 
we  cannot  forbear  any  longer  to  record  our  earn- 
est and  loving  protest,  in  behalf  of  the  memory  of 
Christopher  Columbus  and  John  Cabot,  against 
such  wholesale  assumptions.  We  hesitate  nc .  to 
declare  that  there  is  no  warrant  in  the  documents 
used  by  Mr  Nicholls  to  justify  him  in  placing 
Sebastian  Cabot  on  (his  pedestal. 


f 


i 


»!««£••<«»« 


; 


ii 


I 


II 


f 


h 


Uiuil  very  recently  it  was  not  possible  to  elimi- 
nate the  exploits  of  Sebastian,  the  son,  from  the 
story  of  John  Cabot,  the  father.  Peter  Martyr, 
Oviedo,  Gomara,  Ramusio,  Eden  and  Ilakluyt, 
all  speak  of  them  at  times  indiscriminately  and 
very  confusedly.  All  their  testimony  is  either 
gossipy  and  loose,  or  recorded  at  second  or  even 
third  hand,  long  after  date,  r.ith  a  painful  lack  of 
precision  and  chronology,  evidence  altogether 
untrustworthy.  This  confusion  has  now  been 
made  apparent  by  'he  contemporary  documents 
recently  given  to  the  world.  The  matter  is  now 
partiallv,  not  wholly,  cleared  up,,  leaving  our 
present  knowledge  of  Sebastian  Cabot  very 
slight,  ev^en  less  than  when  he  shone  in  his 
father's  plumes. 

It  is  only  by  making  his  hero  tell  a  positive 
falsehood  (see  page  110)  that  Mr  Nicholls  makes 
Sebastian  Cabot  an  Englishman  at  all  instead  of 
a  Venetian,  and  in  the  face  of  the  most  valuable 
contemporary  papers  he  appropriates  lienors  to 
the  son  which  rightfully  belong  to  the  father, 
John  Cabot.  The  truth  is  that  all  these  contem- 
porary documents  of  1497  and   1498   recently 


»*j^-»^,; 


f 


brought  to  light  from  the  archives  of  Venice, 
Simancas  and  Seville,  by  Mr  Rawdon  Brown 
and  Mr  Beri^enroth,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
British  government,  refer  only  to  John  Cabot 
and  the  voyage  of  1497,  merely  alluding  to  the 
larger  expedition  of  1498  as  having  gone  forth, 
John  Cabot  with  it,  but  not  yet  returned. 
Nothing  whatever  on  contemporary  authority  at 
present  is  known  of  the  details  or  results  of  this 
latter  voyage,  or  of  Sebastian  Cabot's  connection 
with  it.  That  he  was  in  both  voyages,  though 
verv  young,  there  is  little  doubt,  but  in  a  subor- 
dinate capacity.  Ar-  nothing  more  is  beard  of 
John  Cabot  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  died  during 
the  voyp.ge  of  1498,  and  so  his  sou  took 
command— but  even  this  is  not  certain. 

We  have  no  distinct  account  of  the  second  voy- 
age of  1498,  nor  have  we  of  any  subsequent 
voyage  from  England,  of  Sebastian  Cabot.  If  he 
made  the  voyages  of  1502,  or  1517,  or  1527,  or 
the  "many  other  voyages,  which  I  now  preter- 
"mit,"  they  "took  none  effect,"  and  we  have  no 
reliable  accounts  of  them.  Like  the  spurious 
voyage  of  1494,  thev  must  have  got  into  history 


Y' 


C> 


? 


13 

from  typoorapliical  errors  (like  1494  from  mcccc- 
xcvii,  II  for  a  bad  v,)  misreadings  of  authoritif^, 
or  from  illogical  old  gossips  like  Peter  Martyr 
of  Anffleria  and  Butri^arius. 

It  is  always  dangerous,  we  know,  to  attempt 
the  proof  of  a  negative  from  circumstantial 
evidence,  for  any  day  new  documents  may  turn 
up  to  confront  us  and  spoil  our  reasoning.  But 
our  present  lights,  if  hung  with  impartiality  and 
judgment,  are  sufficient  to  dissipate  the  fog  that 
has  so  long  obscured  the  discoveries  of  the  Ce- 
bots.  They  are  not  to  be  used  like  the  hand-Ian- 
tern  of  Diogenes,  but  the  student  with  painful  la- 
bor must  light  up  and  go  over  the  wholo  fiold  of 
history  and  geography  of  that  day,  and  look  into 
the  'sea  of  darkness,'  as  the  Atlantic  was  then 
ca'ed,  stand  in  their  shoes,  and  see  our  sphere  as 
the  Oabots  saw  it. 

Bear  in  mind  that  our  grand  old  globe  then 
stood  bolt  upright  and  independent,  while  the 
sun,  before  Copernicus  commanded  it  to  stand 
still,  was  good  enough  to  revolve  round  it,  the 
land  being  much  Jiore  extensive  than  the  water, 
Europe  and  Asia  coming  round  the  north  like  a 


H 

bi<r  overcoat  covei  rng  its  back  and  shoulders,  so 
that  the  North  Atlantic  was  his  shirt  front, 
England  being  a  button,  and  the  Gulf  of  St 
Lawrence,  then  supposed  to  be  in  Asia,  the  cor- 
responding button-hole,  while  Africa  and  India 
were  the  tails  hanging  down  into  the  sea  below 
the  equatorial  waistband.  No  one  then  dreamed 
of  an  Intervening  new  continent,  or  a  Pacific  slit 
up  the  back. 

Let  us  dismiss  all  our  geographical  knowledge 
acquired  since  the  year  1498,  and  then  read  the 
following  extracts  of  letters  written  from  Lon- 
don. The  first  is  from  Pasqaaligo  to  his  brothers 
in  Venice,  daied  August  23, 1497  :— 

'•The  Venetian,  onr  countryman,  who  went  with  a  ship 
from  Bristol  In  quest  of  new  islands.  Is  returned  and  says 
that  seven  hundred  leagues  hence  he  dlscoverec*.  land,  the 
territoryof  the  Grand  Cham.    He  coasted  three  hundred 

leagues  and  landed;  saw  no  human  beings He  was 

three  months  on  the  voyage  and  on  his  return  saw  two  is- 
lands on  his  right  hand,  but  would  not  land,  time  being 
precious,  and  he  was  short  of  provisions....  The  King  of 
England  is  much  pleased  with  the  intelligence.  The  King 
has  promised  that  In  the  spring  [of  1498]  our  countryman 

shall    have  ten    ships,"  etc "He  is  now  at   Bristol 

with  his  wife,  who  is  also  Venetian    and  with  his  sons; 


I 


' 

% 


his  name  Is  Zuan  Cabot,  and  he  is  styled  the  great  a  .- 
iniral....The  discoverer  of  these  places  planted  on  his 
new  found  land  a  large  cross,  with  one  flaar  of  Ennland 
and  another  of  St  Mark  (Venice)  by  reason  of  his  being 
a  Venetian." 

The  next  day,  August  24,  1497,  Raimundus 

in  London  wrote  to  lils  government  in  Venice: — 

"Also  some  months  aeo  his  Majesty  [Henry  VII]  sent 
out  a  Venetian  LJohn  Cabot]  who  is  a  very  good  mariner 
and  has  good  skill  in  discovering  netv^  islands,  and  he  has  re 
turned  safe,  and  has  found  two  very  large  and  fertile  new 
islands.... The  next  spring  [14981  his  Majesty  means  to 
send  him  with  15  or  20  ships." 

Don  Pedro  de  Ayala,  the  Spanish  ambassador 

at  the  Court  of  Henry  VII,  wrote   to  Ferdinand 

and  Isabella  on  the  25th  of  Jul/,  1498,  of  John 

Cabot,  as  follows: — 

"I  think  that  your  Majesties  have  already  heard  that  the 
King  of  England  has  LthiR  year]  equipped  a  fleet  in  order 
to  discover  certain  islands  and  continents  which  he  was 
informed  some  people  from  Bristol,  who  manned  a  few 
ships  for  the  same  purpose  last  year  ri497],  had  tound.  I 
have  seen  the  map  which  the  discoverer  has  made,  who 
is  another  Genoise,  like  Columbus,  and  who  has  been  in 
Seville  and  in  Lisbon,  asking  assistance  for  his  discoveries. 
The  people  of  Bristol  have,  for  tha  last  seven  years,  sent 
out  every  year  two,  three  or  four  light  ships  (Caraveias) 


7^£i»^;K£^i^^tiiim^S  '^»»ii^Si23in»i»isM!^I^I^Siiie@j^^^^t.'. 


^^mmmmmt^ii^iiiS^sm0i-»'''**>''^''^'-'-  ■■  '■'■»>'^ 


i6 

insearjhofthe  Idand  of  Brazil  and  the  Seven  Cities  ac- 
cording  to  the  fancy  of  this  Genolse.    The  King  determln. 
ed  to  send  out  cmore  ships  this  year,  14981  because  the 
year  before  they  brought  certain  news  that  they  had 
found  land.    His   fleet  consisted  of  Ave  vessels,  which 
carried  provisions  for  one  year.    It  is  said  that  one  of 
them. ...has  returned  to  Ireland  in  great  distress...  The 
Genoise  [John  Cabotj  has  continued  his  voyage.    I  have 
seen  on  a  chart  the  direction  which  they  took,  and  the 
distance  they  sailed,  and  I  think  that  what  they  have 
found,  or  What  they  are  in  search  of,  Is  what  your  Ma- 
lestles  already  pop  less  [being  west  of  the  line  of  Demarca- 
tm].    Itisexpeotedthat  they  will  be  back  In  the  month 
of  September." 

These  documents  are  perfectly  authentic,  and 
the  statements  in  the  extracts  are  positive,  ira- 
portant  and  susrgestive.  In  the  first  place,  they 
speak  only  of  John  Cabot,  and  effectually  dispose 
of  the  pretence  that  the  islands  were  discovered 
on  the  24th  of  June.  1494,  as  pertinaciously  con- 
tended  by  M.  d'Avezac,  and  feebly  argued  by  Mr 
Nicholls,  instead  of  1497. 

From  the  year  1491  or  1492,  there  was  a 
search  by  the  people  ot  Bristol,  in  accordance 
with  the  fancy  of  John  Cabot,  for  the  fabled 
island  of  Brazil,  supposed  to  lie  somewhere  west 


# 


W 


I 


h 


I 


17 

of  the  coast  of  Ireland,  but  there  is  no  intimation 
that  they  had  found  it,  or  that  Cahot  had  gone 
himself  to  look  for  it;  but  in  1497  this  Genoise 
did  find  land,  for  the  first  time.    It  was  on  the 
island  of  Cape  Breton,  as  we  learn  from  other  au- 
thorities.   The  same  6 ay  he  saw  the  island  of  St 
John,  now  Prince  Edward's  Island,  and  on  his 
return  voyage,  coasting  800  leagues,  saw  two 
other  islands,  probably Anticosti  and  the  north  end 
of  Newfoundland,  near  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle; 
thence  home,  after  an  absence  of  threa  months. 
Nothing   south  of  the   Gulf  of  St    Law- 
rence could  have  been  seen  in  this  voyage,  not 
even  the  province  of  Maine.    If  he  effected  a 
landing  it  was  probably  on  the    island  of  St 
John.    He  did  not  land  on  the  other  two  islands 
seen  on  the  right  in  his  homeward  passage.    It  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  south  side  of  Labrador  may 
have  been  seen;  but  it  is  very  doubtful  if  John 
Cabot  or  any  one  of  his  party  touched  the  North 
American   main   continent  in.  1497,  or  before 
Columbus  landed  in  Scuth  America,  in  Vene- 
zuela, the  30th  May,  1498,  though  this  is  a  matter 
of  no  consequence,  as  far  as  the  priority  of  the  dis- 


n 


mmimm 


i8 


covery  of  America  by   Christopher  Columbus 
is  concerned. 

These  extracts  show  that  John  Cabot  was  a  fel- 
low-countryman of  Columbus, though  by  naturali- 
zation in  1476  he  became  a  Venetian  ,and  suggest  a 
plausible  theory  to  account  for  his  movements  be- 
tween the  granting  of  his  patent  in  March  1496, 
and  the  sailing  of  his  ship,  the  Mathew,  in  May 
1497.  Columbus  returned  from  his  second  or 
three  years'  voyage  in  June  1496,  bringing  his 
master  of  charts,  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  with  him  to 
Seville.  The  Spanish  ambassador  writes  that 
Cabot  has  been  in  Seville,  that  is  recently.  This 
may  have  been  between  March  1496  and  April 
1497,  or  between  September  1497  and  the  early 
spring  of  1498. 

In  either  case  John  Cabot  might  have  seen  both 
Columbus  and  La  Cosa  in  Seville.  La  Cosa's  great 
chart  very  accurately  depicting  the  north  side  of 
the  Gulf  of  St  Lawrence  was  finished  in  the  year 
1500,  and  bears  every  mark  of  authenticity,  but 
contains  no  evidence  of  discoveries  south  of  the 
Straits  of  Belle  Isle  after  the  yoyage  of  1497, 


I 


A 


mmmmmm 


M^mmm-ji' 


t9 

either  by  the  Cabots  or  the  Cortereals.  There  is, 
of  course,  great  uncertainty  in  this  reasoning:, 
but  at  all  events  this  important  passage  in  the 
ambassador's  letter  shows  the  early  connection 
of  John  Cabot  with  Spain  if  not  with  Columbus 
and  La  Cosa. 

If  Sebastian  Cab  ,  therefore,  as  Mr  NicholTs 
claims  'surveyed  and  depicted  three  thousand 
miles  of  a  coast,*  it  must  have  been  in  the  Gulf 
of  St  Lawrence,  or  north  of  it,  as  a  subordinate 
to  his  father  John  Cabot,  and  not  later  than 
149b.  There  is  at  present,  as  far  as  we  know,  no 
authentic  contemporary  evidence  known  that 
either  John  or  Sebastian  Cabot  ever  surveyed  the 
coast  south  of  Nova  Scotia.  We  have  not  over- 
looked the  statement  of  Peter  Martyr  or  that  of 
Butrigarius,  or  the  assertions  of  scores  of  other 
later  authorities  based  upon  these  two  gossins, 
the  one  writing  wildly  eighteen,  and  the  other 
more  than  forty,  years  after  the  events  described. 

In  the  fall  of  1512,  John  Cabot  in  whose  name 
thepaient  of  1496  and  the  supplemental  license 
of  1498  stood,  being  dead,  Sebastian  Cabot,  it  is 


so 


well  known,  haying  received  no  further  encour- 
agement from  Henry  VH  or  Henry  VHI,  was 
residing  in  October  in  Seville,  with  a  royal 
commission  as  captain  in  his  pocket,  awaiting 
orders  there,  in  the  service  of  the  King  of 
Spain,  where  he  remained  for  a  great  num- 
ber of  years,  though  perhaps  visiting  England 
occasionally.  Here  he  became  the  intimate 
friend  of  Peter  Martyr,  one  of  the  Council 
of  the  Indies,  and  shortly  after  was  ap- 
pointed a  member  of  that  board  himself. 
A  little  later,  rising  in  honors  and  salary,  he  be- 
came in  1518  the  pilot  mt^jor  of  Spain,  andin 
152d  was  deputed  as  one  of  the  twenty-four  wise 
men  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  to  preside  over  the 
celebrated  Geographical  Congress  of  Badajos. 

After  the  return  of  the  Victoria  in  1522  with  the 
glorious  results  of  Magellan's  unfortunate  expe- 
dition, maritime  enterprise,  public  and  private, 
was  greatly  a-oused  throughout  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal. Innumerable  schemes  for  developing  com- 
merce with  the  Orient,  and  making  further 
discoveries  and  explorations,  were  pro- 
posed   to    the    Council    of    the    Indies    and 


l\ 


»l 


* 


discussed.  Every  pilot,  whether  amateur  or 
practical,  had  his  card  of  the  '  hortest  route  to 
the  Indies.  Of  these  schemes,  no  loss  than  six 
were  approved  and  adopted  by  the  government 
and  promoted  wholly  or  in  part  by  the  public 
funds,  viz:  that  of  Cortes,  of  Loaysa,  of  Gomez, 
of  Ayllon,  of  Cabot  himself,  and  of  Saavedra, 
besides  many  others  of  minor  importance. 

Now  in  the  several  official  positions  of  Sebas- 
tian Cabot  in  Spain,  it  was  his  duty  to  superintend 
and  watch  over  all  the  discoveries  and  explora- 
tions of  the  Spanish  navieators,  to  supply  them 
with  instructions,  charts  and  scientific  instru- 
ments, etc. 

As  councillor,  as  pilot  major  and  president  of 
the  geographers,  and  as  a  man  of  vast  experience, 
he  was  presumed  to  know  all  that  had  been  dis- 
covered by  his  contemporaries.  Is  it  reasonable, 
therefore,  to  suppose  that  if  he  had  been  down 
the  coast  of  Maine,  Massachusetts  and  Virginia, 
from  Bacalaos,  as  his  advocates  claim,  in  1497  or 
1498,  to  latitude  30  degrees,  or  as  some  say  to  the 
point  of  Florida,  he  would  have  yielded  without  a 


I   0Mi^Jl»aKii:^-^'.^i^JJSBn-3>Sei^ii&^^SSf^-^^-'--'iS^^ 


22 

word  of  protest  his  prior  right  to  the  discoveries 
of  Ponce  de  Leon  in  Florida  in  1518,  of  Griialra, 
Cortes  and  Garay,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  in 
1518  20,  of  A  jUon  as  far  north  as  Cape  Fear  in 
1520  and  1526,  of  Gomez  up  to  Rhode  Island  in 
1525,  to  say  nothing  of  the  voyages  of  Verazzano 
for  the  French ?  No  writer  pretends  to  deprive 
these  navigators  of  their  rights  as  discoverers 
and  explorers,  and  no  protest  or  contemporary 
claim  is  forthcoming  from  Sebastian  Cabot,  who 
was  all  the  time  in  the  field  and  well  acquainted 
with  the  affairs. 

It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that,  while  these 
navigators  were  groping  their  way  up  the 
coast  of  the  present  United  States  from  Florida 
towards  Cape  Malabar,  or  the  south  side  of  Cape 
Cod,  between  1518  and  1525,  they  supposed  they 
were  exploring  the  coast  of  Eastern  Asia,  beyond 
where  Marco  Polo  and  Sir  John  Mandeville  had 
been,  never  suspecting  an  intervening  continent, 
so  much  out  were  they  and  all  the  scientific 
world  besides  in  their  calculations  of  longitude. 
La  Cosa  laid  down  the  Asiatic  line  in  1500,  con- 
tinuing it  from  a  little  boyond  the  Ganges  to 


% 


wm 


H 

meet  the  parts  discovered  by  John  Cabot.  La 
Cosa  positively  limits,  in  a  very  definite  manner, 
the  discoveries  of  the  English  to  the  Mar  or  Gulf 
0/  St  Lawrence. 

The  highly  important  Portuguese  portolano 
now  preserved  at  Munich,  and  described  by 
Kuntzmann,  made  about  1514,  one  of  the  earliest 
and  honestest  maps  known,  after  adding  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  Cortereals  to  those  of  the  Cabots, 
and  of  Ponce  de  Leon,  leaves  the  whole  space 

from  Nova  Scotia  to  Charleston  open,  as  being 
entirely  unknown.  From  all  these  circumstances 
we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  rights  of 
tbe  English  to  the  discoveries  of  John  Cabot  and 
his  family  in  1497-98  were  allowed  to  lapse,  and 
that  Sebastian  Cabot  never  saw  the  North  Amer- 
ican  coast  south  of  Nova  Scotia. 

In  April,  1528,  Sebastian  Cabot,  after  long  and 
ample  preparations  at  Seville,  sailed  for  the 
Moluccasvia  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  with  four 
well  equipped  ships,  for  the  purpose  of  reen- 
forcing  and  assisting  the  expedition  of  Loaysa 
vrhich  had  sailed  nine  months  before  by  the  same 


■■i 


route,  with  the  view  first  to  succor  the  men  left 
there  by  Magellan's  fleet,  and  then  to  establish 
and  protect  in  the  Moluccas  Spanish  Commercial 
Bureaus.  Cabot's  expedition  was  an  utter  failure, 
chiefly  from  his  practical  incompetence  and  dis- 
obedience of  orders.  Juan  de  Solis  had  been 
down  the  coast  of  Brazil,  and  Cabot  had  con- 
ceived a  notion  that  by  penetrating  the  great 
river  afterwards  called  Rio  de  la  Plata  he  might 
pass  through  to  the  Moluccas,  and  thus 
avoid  the  Southern  straits  and  shorten  the 
distance  to  the  Spiceries.  Accident  and  mutiny 
had  something,  no  doubt,  to  do  with  his  change 
of  plan,  but  his  ambition  to  find  a  new  route 
had  more. 

In  this  expedition  Cabot  penetrated  far  into 
the  interior  of  Paraguay',  explor*  i  many  larjje 
rirars  and  fertile  provinces,  suffered  many  hard- 
ships, lost  most  of  his  men  and  ships,  and  finally, 
after  more  than  five  years  of  toil,  hardship  and 
disappointment,  returned  to  Spain,  in  1531,  with- 
out any  favorable  results,  to  find  that  Charles  the 
Fifth,  hard  up  for  money,  had  pawned  the  Moluc- 
cas to  the  King  of  Portugal,  and  was  too  happy 


to  avoid  any  Inquiry  into  the  failures  of  his  six 
great  exploring  expeditions.  So  Cabot  resumed 
his  oflacia!  duties  and  remained  in  office  till  1548, 
when  he  returned  to  England  at  the  affep-obably 
of  seventy-two  or  seventy-six  years. 

Shortly  after  this  he  was  made  use  of  by  cer- 
tain merchants  of  London  in  getting  up  a  trad- 
ing company  to  Russia,  and  to  seek   a  North- 
eastern passage  to  China.    But  of  these  honor- 
able enterprises  very  little  has  come  down  to  us 
of  a  character  to  lift  him  to  the  high  position 
claimed  by  Mr  NichoUs.    Documents  may  here- 
after turnup  justifying  in  a  degree  the  high 
encomiums  of  our  author,but  at  present  we  know 
of  them  not.    Nor  do  we  know  of  any  one  whose 
'calumny  has  flung  its  filth  on  his  memory.'  On 
the  page  of  history  if  one  find^  very  little  in  favor  of 
Sebastian  Cabot  to  raise  him  far  above  the  level, 
yet  no  one  has  found  anything  against  him. 
His  record,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  honorable,  but 
there  is  very  little  of  it,  and  it  seems  to  us  idle  at 
this  day  by  mere  assertion  to  build  up  a  reputa- 
tion for  him. 


26 


1^  I 


Sebastian  Cabot  died  probably  in  1558,  but  no 
one  at  present  knows  precisely  when  or  where, 
and  therefore  it  would  be  as  diflacult  to  find  a  fit 
place  to  erect  a  monument  to  him,  as  to  find  a 
good  p.nd  sufficient  reason  for  it.  It  is  better  far, 
according  to  the  old  saw,  that  people  should  ask, 
why  hath  not  this  man  a  monument?  than,  why 
hath  he  one?  We  ask  why  should  a  statue  be 
erected  to  Sebastian  Cabot?  and  why  should  the 
new  Continent  be  named  Cabotia? 

To  all  intents  and  purposes  Christopher  Colum- 
bus was  the  discoverer  of  America,  and  is  entitled 
to  that  honorable  distinction.  The  grand  idea 
of  sailing  west  to  find  the  east  was  his,  and  the 
success  was  his;  let  the  honor  be  his.  For 
eighteen  years  was  he  laboring  to  cipher  out  and 
to  carry  out  this  theory,  which  was  all  his  own. 

Tired  and  worn  out  in  Portugal,  after  ten  years 
he  found  his  way  into  Spain  in  1485.  For 
seven  long  years  he  danced  attendance  on  the 
Sp-^nish  Court,  with  no  fortune  but  his  idea; 
sometimes  thread-bare  and  bare-footed,  ever 
pressing  his  suit,  never  flagging  in  his  confidence, 


■iifir (iiiniii 


i 


27 


i 


questioned  and  ridiculed  by  commissions  of 
geographers  and  scientific  men,  scorned  by  the 
Church  and  its  narrow-pated  sciolists ;  without 
ever  being  able  to  penetrate  the  conservative 
ignorance  of  the  learned,  the  reverend  and  the 
courtly,  01'^  as  he  compluined,  to  convince  any 
one  man  how  it  was  possible  to  sail  west  and 
reach  the  East. 

To  us,  therefore,  it  seems  but  trifling  with  com- 
mon sense  and  playing  with  wr  ds  for  Mr 
Nicholls  to  contend  that  Sebastian  Cebot  discov- 
ered America,  just  as  it  does  for  Senhor  Vamha- 
gen  to  bestow  the  distinction  of  Discoverer  upon 
Amerigo  Vespucci.  In  the  year  1492,  Columbus, 
after  having  first  made  his  landfall  upon  a  small 
island,  explored  the  northeast  coast  of  Cuba, 
supposing  it  to  pertain  to  Asia.  Thence  return- 
ing eastward,  he  visited  Hispsniola,  taking  it  to 
be  the  Zipangn  of  Marco  Polo — the  Japan  of  to- 
day. In  1494,  in  his  second  voyage,  he  explored 
almost  the  entire  southern  coast  of  Cuba,  having 
his  Master  of  Charts,  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  with  him 
to  delineate  his  discoveries]  and  soon  after  cir- 
cumnavigated his  Zipangu,  visiting  Jamaica  and 


■M«« 


28 

Other  islands.    In  1506,  two  years  before  Cuba 
was  found  to  be  an  island,  Columbus  d!.,d  in  the 
belief  that,  by  a  weetem  route,  he  had  found  the 
land  of  the  Grand  Cham  of  China.    Now  at  that 
time,  whatever  portions  of  the  globe  did  not  per- 
tain to  Europe  or  Africa,  belonged  to  Asia.    He 
placed  his   discoveries  in  Eastern  Asia,  giving 
names  only  to  certain  islands  in  compliment  to 
hi.^  patrons,   but   was   too  just  and  modesUo 
bestv-'w  his  own  name  on  the  ancient  continent  of 
Asia,  parts  of  which  Alexander  had  conquered 
and  Aristotle  described.    By  a  circumstance  per- 
fectly fortuitous,  after  the  death  of  Columbus, 
and  without  the  knowledge  of  Vespucci,  in  1507, 
by  a  little  knot  of  eaiuest  students,  in  a  remote 
mountain  town  of  France,  the  beautiful  name 
America  was  suggested  for  the  newly  described 
large   island   of  Terra  Santa  Crusis,  or  Brazil. 
This  large  country  was  nearly  a  thousand  miles 
from  thfc  regions  first  discovered  by  Columbus, 
and  another  thousand  from  that  other  province 
of  Asia  called  Bacalaos,  afterwards  seen  by  John 
Cabot.    No  one  then  suspected  that  all  these 
fields  of  discovery  were  parts  of  one  grand  conti- 


K 

it-. 


I 


V 


29 

nent,  to  become  thereafter  known  as  the  New 
Hemisphere.    Of  these   names  of  distinct  pro- 
vinces, Cuba,  Paria,  Brazil,  America  and  Baca- 
laos,   the  chances  cf  one  supplanting  the  rest 
were  as  good  as  thosfi  of  another.   But,  as  usual, 
beauty  triumphed.    As  subsequent  explorations 
connected  the  islands  and  developed  the  conti- 
nent, the  beautiful  name  America  extended  by 
degrees  ovCi  the  whole,  by  the  same  law  of  man- 
ifest destiny  which  caused  the  easily  pronounced 
name  of  the  little  province  of  Apeica  to  sup- 
plant that  of  ancient  Libya.    Within   about  a 
century,  the  new  hemisphere  became  North  and 
South  America,  the  fourth  grand  division  of  the 
globe.    Cuba,  therefore,  discovered  in  1492,  is  as 
much  a  part  of  America  as  England  is  of  Eiirope, 
or  Martha's  Vineyard  is  of  Massachusetts;  and 
hence  Columbus  is  entitled  to  the  designation  of 
Di8coverer,ju8tasmuchasif  he  had  the  same 
year  first  put  his  foot  upon  Florida,  Labrador  or 
Brazil. 

Thus  the  ambitious  monument  which  Mr 
Nicholas  has  achieved  for  his  hero  with  such 
commendable  zeal  and  love  is  chipped  away  by 


mm 


■m 


■I 


30 


the  cold  chisel  of  simple  facts,  leaving  his  book 
without  a  hero  and  his  hero  without  a  record. 
Sebastian  Cabot,  who  has  been  cruelly  dragged 
into  prominence  within  the  last  forty  years  by 
over-zealous  advocates,  must  now  bow  to  the  in- 
exorable laws  of  historic  truth  and  retire  to 
respectable  mediocrity,  unless  some  new  old 
documents  may  reinstate  him,  while  his  father 
will  assume  his  true  position  on  the  page  of 
history. 

We  are  sorry  for  Mr  Nicholls  and  dear  old 
mercantile  Bristol  to  lose  a  pet  hero  like  Sebas- 
tian Cabot;  but  if  with  his  manifestly  earnest 
and  amiable  qualities  the  author  can  transfer  his 
labor  of  love  to  John  Cabot,  elide  a  great  deal  of 
irrelevant  padding,  correct  innumerable  authorial 
and  typographical  errors,  state  his  opinions  in 
something  like  logical  sequence,  with  guesses 
a  little  narrower  and  studies  a  little  broader,  with 
more  precision  and  less  fine  writing,  with  bigger 
facts  and  smaller  inferences,  he  may  yet  achieve 
a  Cabotia  of  some  sort  or  other  for  Bristol,  and 
deposit  in  the  British  Museum  a  Life  of  John 
Cabot  that  shall  be  a  credit  to  himself,  a  valuable 


mm 


4 

' 


31 

contribution  to  biographical  literature,  and  an 
honor  to  Bristol.  Let  him  suppress  his  finely  en- 
graved map,  because,  of  the  sixty-five  names 
upon  it,  his  copyist  and  engraver  have  managed 
to  misspell  above  forty,  hopelessly  disguising 
some  of  them.  This  is  a  very  serious  matter,  un- 
necessarily complicating  questions  too  obscure 
already. 

In  a  future  edition  Mr  Nicholls  might  also 
explain,  in  respect  of  the  excellent  line-en- 
graved portrait,  that  what  was  true  of  it  forty 
years  ago  is  not  true  now.  The  original  portrait 
(not  by  Holbein,  as  claimed,  for  it  is  now  ascer- 
tained that  Hans  died  five  years  before  Sebastian 
Cabot  returned  to  England  from  Spain)  was 
once  in  the  possession  of  Charles  Joseph  Har- 
ford, esq.,  but  about  forty  years  ago  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  our  countryman,  Mr  Richard 
Biddle,  at  a  cost,  it  is  understood,  of  £500,  and 
was  brought  to  this  country.  A  fine  copy,  full 
size,  was  taken,  and  is  now  preserved  in  the 
galiery  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
the  original  having  been  destroyed  some  years 
ago  in  the  great  fire  of  1  litsburg. 


KMMIWiMMiWM 


mmmm 


3« 

By  just  so  many  pegs  as  we  lower  the  hero  of 
Mr  Nicholls,  a  corresponding  allowance  must 
be  debited  to  Dr  Kohl  and  M.  d'Avezac  against 
their  estimates  of  Sebastian  Cabot  in  the  recent 
volume  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society.  America 
in  rearranging  and  setting  up  her  penates, 
maet  never  forget  Sebastian  Cabot  or 
be  ungrateful  for  his  services,  but 
let  the  niche  assigned  to  him  by 
Truth  and  History  be  ap- 
propriate to  his  merits, 
and  not  derogatory 
to  the  honor  of 

OTHBBB 


BND 


nvne^mmmtimutt 


ft 


-wm 


